THE FOUNDATION

“There is no vice so mean, so pitiful, so contemptible; and he who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and a third time, till at length it becomes habitual.” —Thomas Jefferson (1785)

IN BRIEF

On Monday, President Donald Trump botched a joke while honoring famed World War II veterans from the Native American Navajo Code Talkers at a White House ceremony. Trump, as he is wont to do, went ad lib, saying as he looked to the veterans, “And I just want to thank you because you’re very, very special people. You were here long before any of us were here, although we have a representative in Congress who, they say, was here a long time ago. They call her ‘Pocahontas.’” Trump was referencing Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), who falsely claimed Native American ancestry to secure special treatment in her career at Harvard. Warren’s joke moniker among conservatives is actually “Fauxcahontas.”

But it wasn’t the botched punch line that bothered the mainstream media. Trump calling Warren Pocahontas was somehow “racist.” Like Warren, the Leftmedia decided to make up a claim out of whole cloth — that the name “Pocahontas” was a racial slur. CNN even sanctimoniously lectured that “Pocahontas was a historical figure from the 17th Century and using her name in an intentionally disparaging way insults native peoples and degrades their cultures.” CNN then pivoted and sought to excuse Warren’s false claims, reporting, “Warren says she is, in fact, part Native American, citing ‘family stories’ passed down through generations of her family.” Well then…

Attempting to whip up more “evidence” for its “Trump is a racist” narrative, the Leftmedia hammered White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders over Trump’s use of this “racial slur” — which just happened to be how Warren herself framed it. Sanders appropriately and pointedly responded, “I think that’s a ridiculous response. … Look, I think that Senator Warren was very offensive when she lied about something specifically to advance her career. I don’t understand why no one is asking about that question and why that isn’t constantly covered.” Good question. Why isn’t the MSM all over Warren for her racist “sin” of “cultural appropriation”?

“Veritas vos Liberabit” — the truth will set you free — has been The Patriot Post’s motto since our inception in 1996. A well-funded group called Project Veritas uses the same Latin word to describe its efforts to expose leftist hypocrisy, bias and lies. Unfortunately, that group failed to live up to its name this week.

First, some background. Project Veritas’ founder, James O'Keefe, has made a living with undercover “sting” videos. His first claim to fame was cracking the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) in a series of videos revealing that ACORN would help certain patrons skirt the law. ACORN soon lost government funding and went defunct. O'Keefe, however, learned some of the wrong lessons. It wasn’t long before he was arrested for a stunt involving Louisiana Democrat Sen. Mary Landrieu. His shenanigans continued, even if sometimes with rewarding “gotcha” videos against the Left.

O'Keefe’s latest adventure saw him trying to take down The Washington Post for its politically timed hit job on Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore. O'Keefe used a woman to try to plant a false story with the Post so as to discredit the paper’s other reporting. “In a series of interviews over two weeks,” the Post reported, “the woman shared a dramatic story about an alleged sexual relationship with Moore in 1992 that led to an abortion when she was 15.” The Post was already on guard for such attempts to undermine its credibility, however, and easily sniffed out the “inconsistencies in her story.” The game was up when the Post’s reporters saw her entering the offices of Project Veritas.

O'Keefe’s ill-conceived sting actually makes the Post more credible. Unlike the affair with Rolling Stone, the problem with the Post’s stories on Moore wasn’t the credibility of the paper’s reporting or the accounts of Moore’s accusers — which are largely believable and which the candidate has yet to convincingly deny. The problem with the Post’s blockbuster scoop was the timing. We strongly suspect the Post sat on the story, waiting to release its report until after Moore won the GOP Senate primary. O'Keefe’s attempt to discredit the Post and Moore’s accusers, all while theoretically getting Moore off the hook, doesn’t address the real issue.

In fact, conservatives shouldn’t mistake the Post’s bias for a lack of professionalism. There’s a reason why the Post is one of the nation’s leading newspapers — its reporters are good at what they do. That’s true even if the paper is a propaganda outlet for the Democrat Party, courtesy of its owner, billionaire Jeff Bezos.

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FEATURED ANALYSIS

Gun owners in America may have good reason to rejoice in the coming weeks with Congress poised to move on legislation allowing national concealed carry reciprocity. However, all is not well in the court system as the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a critical case involving a renewed ban on so called “assault weapons.” But it could be worse, as over in the UK, the government is pushing another mandatory gun turn-in program for those who have guns but supposedly don’t want them or need them anymore.

On Tuesday, the House Judiciary is scheduled to consider the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017. Most concealed carry permit holders have long awaited Congress to make a move on this legislation because each state currently has its own standards for issuing conceal carry permits. Some states have much stricter standards than others, and the result has been confusion and misinterpretation of each state’s existing law. Not to mention there have been numerous cases of people traveling through a state while carrying concealed only to be pulled over for routine traffic stops resulting in trouble over the gun.

The current House Bill would allow travelers to cross state lines with valid conceal carry permits, even if it meant traveling from a state with lax standards to one with strict standards. It would also allow individuals who reside in “permitless carry” states to carry a firearm throughout the country with no permit at all and it would require states to allow their own residents to carry guns with “non-resident permits” that they obtained from another state.

There are some who would argue that the federal government is overreaching if it passes this legislation, as it would basically make existing state laws on who can carry a concealed firearm null and void. But the counterargument to this is that the Second Amendment to the Constitution, which was ratified and agreed to by the states, already protects the individual right to keep and bear arms. So a state law should not supersede what the Constitution protects. In some sense, if a citizen has the right to keep and bear arms, then why is a “permit” or “permission” from the government lawful or necessary in the first place?

Now for some bad news.

Yesterday, the Supreme Court declined to hear two separate cases from firearms advocates, choosing instead to stay out of the intensifying gun debate. The Justices didn’t even comment on the two separate appeals cases, Kolbe v. Hogan in Maryland and Norman v. Florida.

In Florida, a lower court ruled that no citizen has the right to openly carry a firearm outside their home unless it is concealed. In 2012, Dale Lee Norman was arrested for walking on a sidewalk with a handgun openly in his holster. In Florida, as in South Carolina and Illinois, in order to legally carry a firearm outside of one’s home, it is supposed to be concealed.

In the Maryland case, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the state’s ban on so-called “assault weapons,” such as the popular AR-15, ruling that these particular guns are not protected by the Second Amendment. The court’s ruling also upheld the ban on detachable ammunition magazines that exceed 10 rounds, a ridiculously low number that includes standard-capacity magazines on numerous firearms.

It was widely speculated that the court would take on the Fourth Circuit’s decision because the Second, Seventh and DC Circuits have issued similar rulings upholding bans on semi-automatic rifles with certain cosmetic features. But to the dismay of many, the High Court wanted no part of another gun case, leaving in place the lower court rulings. For whatever reason, even Justice Clarence Thomas, who has been very vocal in supporting the Second Amendment, had nothing to say.

As bad as the Supreme Court’s inaction on the Fourth Circuit decision is, at least we’re not facing what British subjects are — at least not yet.

In the United Kingdom, the National Ballistics Intelligence Service (NABIS) recently conducted a new gun surrender program. The reason for this was that NABIS, after reviewing its crime data, saw a 27% increase in “gun crimes” the past year.

The program is designed to give people the opportunity who have guns and ammunition that they don’t want any more or who happen to possess illegal firearms the ability to turn them over to the UK government with no repercussions. David Jamieson, police and crime commissioner for the West Midlands area, urged citizens to turn over their guns and their family members’ guns. In a statement, he said, “I would urge people to hand in their guns. Any firearm in the wrong hands can have a devastating impact. It is no exaggeration to say that each gun we retrieve has the potential to save a life. If you or a family member possess an illegal or unwanted firearm please hand it in to the police. It might just be the best decision you ever make. Destroying these firearms will make us all safer.”

Well, at least criminals will be safer.

If this program was so effective and produced so many positive results, then why was the same program tried three years earlier followed by an increase in “gun crimes”? It should be noted that Great Britain already has some of the strictest gun laws on the planet, but for gun control freaks, it’s never enough. Yet leftists in our own country tell us that gun confiscation is not something we the people need to worry about when they try to pass more control laws? Tell that to the citizens in the UK.

OPINION IN BRIEF

Gary Bauer: “The Washington Post ran an editorial that attacked the religious roots of Thanksgiving and suggested that the real lesson we should learn was how the Pilgrims adapted to climate change. We know what happens if you are exposed to this kind of nonsense day after day after day. There is a reason that Millennials are the least patriotic generation. They have been subjected to the Left’s growing anti-Americanism throughout their education. But now the rest of us are being subjected to it during football games. … The so-called ‘progressive Left’ is turning patriotic Americans into aliens in our own country. Anyone who was born here, who is proud of the Founding Fathers and proud of what America has done for the world is made by cultural elites to feel like strangers so the Left can complete its ‘fundamental transformation’ of America. … The Left’s constant attacks against America drove many voters to support the candidate who advocated for ‘America First’ and who pledged to ‘make America great again.’ Judging from that Washington Post editorial about Thanksgiving and that tweet about rural Americans, the Left hasn’t learned many lessons from the election.”

SHORT CUTS

Insight: “The knowledge of the world is only to be acquired in the world, and not in a closet.” —Philip Dormer Stanhope (1694-1773)

Upright: “It starts with how you raise your children. If a young man doesn’t have a father figure, he’ll go find a father figure. So, you know, I can’t blame the system. It’s unfortunate that we make such easy work for them.” —Denzel Washington

Braying Jenny: “New details today on the incident that left Senator Rand Paul with six broken ribs — this might be one of my favorite stories.” —MSNBC’s Kasie Hunt

Non Compos Mentis: “The real culprit of the climate crisis is not any particular form of consumption, production or regulation but rather the very way in which we globally produce, which is for profit rather than for sustainability. So long as this order is in place, the crisis will continue and, given its progressive nature, worsen. This is a hard fact to confront. But averting our eyes from a seemingly intractable problem does not make it any less a problem. It should be stated plainly: It’s capitalism that is at fault.” —Arizona State University professor Benjamin Y. Fong in The New York Times

Right for the wrong reasons: “I did think [Hillary Clinton] was very, very dangerous.” —actress and Bernie Sanders fangirl Susan Sarandon

Irony alert: “This is the core threat to our democracy. The rural minority … have and will continue to have disproportionate power over the urban majority.” —MSNBC’s Joy Reid (Our Republic was established so that the urban majority wouldn’t have disproportionate power over the rural minority.)

And last… “On Monday, GQ political correspondent Keith Olbermann … suddenly announced his retirement from the world of political commentary. … Already, speculation has begun that there is another reason Olbermann is stepping down. Perhaps it’s to take care of his cats. But we’ll soon find out.” —Ben Shapiro

Join us in daily prayer for our Patriots in uniform — Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen — standing in harm’s way in defense of Liberty, and for their families. We also humbly ask prayer for your Patriot team, that our mission would seed and encourage the spirit of Liberty in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

"Born in other countries, yet believing you could be happy in this, our laws acknowledge, as they should do, your right to join us in society, conforming, as I doubt not you will do, to our established rules." —Thomas Jefferson (1801)

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